Falling For You [Tom Hiddleston]

18

Claire's POV

The other side of the bed was empty when I finally woke again, so I just laid there on my stomach with my eyes closed, enjoying a rare moment alone. Between Caleb and his men, I'd hardly had a whole hour to myself since we'd arrived - so I was making the most of it.

It was warm enough in the room that I didn't feel the need to cover my nakedness, even kicking the sheets down further to cool down some more. That little bit of movement reminded me that I should probably take stock of my latest injuries whenever I got out of bed; I ached all over. I considered getting up to at least take some more pain killers, but when I heard footsteps in the hallway, I gave up on that idea.

I really didn't want to deal with him yet, so I decided my best bet was to pretend to be asleep for a little longer. I didn't move a muscle when the door opened to our suite and two people walked in, focusing instead on maintaining slow, even breathing.

"Why are we here?" Owen asked in a hushed voice. "Are you finally going to share your whore with me? You've kept this one to yourself for longer than usual."

"She's not a whore," Caleb growled a second before I heard the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a grunt of pain. "Next time I won't be so forgiving, cousin."

"You saw what the bitch did to me," Owen whined. "Drew blood, she did. Fucking bitch!"

I had to fight to keep a satisfied smile from curving my lips, reminding myself to continue to breathe slowly and evenly. The opportunity to be a fly on the wall was too good to pass up.

"You brought that on yourself," Caleb said firmly, surprising me; perhaps in his own way he did care for me. "Given her stubborn nature, did you really think my Claire would just spread her legs so you could plow her?"

"All the others did - but you've never cared in the past if I fucked your whores, cousin. Why now?"

His gloating made my skin crawl. I highly doubted any of those women would have consented to being used like that unless they were in the sex trade - maybe not even then. I kept my limbs loose and pliable as the covers were pulled up and placed gently over me, blocking my body from Owen's gaze.

"That was in the past - but for now, she is mine and mine alone. You will not touch her again except at my direction. It took at least an hour last night to calm her down and several more hours before I could use her in the manner I've become accustomed."

Owen lowered his voice. "Don't tell me you actually love that little gold-digging slut?!"

It was harder than I anticipated to keep from laughing at the disbelieving sneer in his tone. I tolerated Owen because I had to - he was Caleb's right hand man. He'd never made a secret of his less that favorable opinion of me.

The sound of flesh striking flesh was louder this time; Caleb must still be pissed at him. "Have a care of how you speak of my Claire," Caleb warned him. "Green is not your color, cousin."

"Ha! You think me jealous of her?"

"Aye, it's the only reasonable explanation for your uncharacteristic behavior."

"I'm not jealous of your bedwarmer - I just don't trust her."

"Because she's a woman?"

"Exactly," Owen snapped, making me want to roll my eyes at him.

Owen Prior was a prime example of a misogynistic idiot. He happened to be right about not trusting me - but that was for a much different reason. Thankfully, it sounded like they were finally leaving - but I still laid there without moving for a while longer. I knew better than to make the rookie mistake of assuming they'd both left. I gave it a solid five minutes before kicking the covers down a bit; I was getting too warm again.